The U.S. Attorney for Western New York has filed more poten­tial fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es than most of his col­leagues across the coun­try. Since tak­ing office in March 2010, William J. Hochul, Jr. has peti­tioned the Justice Department to seek the death penal­ty against 24 peo­ple, more than his coun­ter­parts in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami or cities in Texas. Only two oth­er fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors, both from more pop­u­lous dis­tricts than Western New York, have filed as many death cas­es with Attorney General Eric Holder in the past 2 years. None of Hochul’s cas­es has yet result­ed in a cap­i­tal tri­al, much less a death sen­tence, but they have cost tax­pay­ers more than $661,000 just in the past year. This expen­di­ture is more than the com­bined amount spent by the area’s four pre­vi­ous U.S. attor­neys on death penal­ty-eli­gi­ble cas­es over the pre­vi­ous 11 years. Kevin McNally, who heads the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project said, I seri­ous­ly doubt whether any of [Hochul’s] defen­dants will actu­al­ly face the death penal­ty at tri­al.” The Department of Justice spends an esti­mat­ed $86 mil­lion a year on fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es. Since the rein­state­ment of the fed­er­al death penal­ty in 1988, three defen­dants have been exe­cut­ed. David Kaczynzki, a mem­ber of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said, I do not see how even the staunchest sup­port­er of the death penal­ty could argue that these pros­e­cu­tions are an effi­cient use of taxpayer money.”

(D. Herbeck, William Hochul puts death penal­ty to fre­quent tests,” Buffalo News, October 22, 2011). See Arbitrariness, Costs and Federal Death Penalty.

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